Alabama man sentenced for attempting to support Islamic State

June 20 (UPI) — An Alabama man was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a lifetime on parole for attempting to offer material support to Islamic State, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

The sentence comes after Aziz Ihab Sayyed, 23, pleaded guilty in March to buying bomb-building ingredients in 2017 with “aspirations to conduct Islamic State-inspired attacks on police stations and Redstone Arsenal,: a U.S. Army Base in Madison County, Ala.

The Justice Department also said that Sayyed, a U.S. citizen, attempted to form a cell to conduct violent acts within the United States.

According to prosecutors, between January and June 2017, Sayyed watched and shared several videos of the Islamic State committing acts of violence and researched how to make triacetone triperoxide, also known as TATP, a highly explosive material. He then bought materials to make a bomb with the TATP.

On June 13, 2107, Sayyed met with an undercover FBI employee who was posing as a member of the Islamic State. The two discussed making and detonating a bomb made with the TATP and Sayyed “offered to personally carry out attacks on behalf of [Islamic State],” prosecutors said.

“Aziz Sayyed was inspired by ISIS to kill or harm Americans and he has earned every bit of his prison term,” said U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.